Queen honours Graeme Avery of Sileni
Friday 8 June 2007
GRAEME AVERY HONOURED BY THE QUEEN
Graeme Avery, owner and CEO of Sileni Estates, was honoured by Her Majesty the Queen in the Queen’s Birthday (4 June 2007) Honours List with an ‘Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit’ (ONZM) for his contribution to business and sport.
The award of ONZM is the level below that of the former knighthoods – now replaced by the NZ Order of Merit system.
In 1963 Graeme Avery founded and developed Adis International Group, a highly successful international medical publishing business with offices in ten countries, which became a world leader in creation of knowledge publications on new prescription drugs and their use in disease management.
In 1997 he established Sileni Estates, a vineyard, winery, epicurean centre and cellar in Hawkes’ Bay which has rapidly become an icon visitor destination and a producer of ultra-premium quality wines, currently exported to over 30 markets in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australasia.
In 1998 with over 40 years experience in athletics administration and sports promotion, Graeme contributed to financially and led the fundraising appeal for the Millennium Institute of Sport & Health - a world class high performance coaching and training environment, which also provides community-based sport, health and fitness services.
In 2000 he founded the Hawke’s Bay Food & Wine Tourism Group and Hawke’s Bay Food Group – private sector organisations to maximise the food and wine attributes of Hawke’s Bay through branding the region and implementation of marketing support programmes. He is currently Chairman of the New Zealand Food and Wine Tourism network, a marketing collaborative developed to promote tourism to the food and wine regions of New Zealand.
In December 2002, Graeme was recognised as ‘New Zealander of the Year’ by New Zealand’s leading current affairs magazine North & South.
In October 2006, he was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate of the Auckland University of Technology (HonD) for his outstanding and nationally recognised contribution to health publishing, elite and developmental sport in New Zealand.